NETL representatives are putting a spotlight on the Laboratory’s ongoing research efforts focused on developing efficient energy-related technologies at the 9th Annual Pennsylvania Energy Efficiency Conference this week in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The event is presented by Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance (KEEA) and its partners and brings together the energy efficiency industry’s most prominent players for two days of valuable networking and discussions about policy, emerging technology trends, and the future of energy efficiency. State, regional and national experts will speak on a variety of energy efficiency technologies and topics.

The conference is a natural venue for NETL. One of the Laboratory’s key goals is to develop more ways to get more energy out of the nation’s energy assets, extending natural resources, reducing emissions, and ensuring that the nation can benefit from low-cost energy while protecting the environment.

NETL’s research has helped improve power plant turbine blades, create better sensors and control systems, and advance manufacturing approaches that create components to make power plants and the nation’s power grid more efficient and productive. The Laboratory’s efforts are developing energy efficient innovations in a range of other areas from solid oxide fuel cells to geothermal energy sources.

In addition, NETL has scored successes through a memorandum of understanding with the City of Pittsburgh to establish it as a “Clean Energy City of the Future.” NETL is working with Pittsburgh to create a network of small-scale distributed energy systems that supply local residents with clean, reliable and cost-effective power. Rather than relying on a centralized grid supplied by distant facilities, these systems can operate independently or in conjunction with the main electrical grid and incorporate a diverse mix of energy sources, including advanced energy technologies pioneered by NETL and other national laboratories. This innovative partnership creates a model for other local governments and demonstrates how national laboratories can be key assets in helping cities meet the economic development and job creation needs of the 21st century.

NETL tackles its research assignments by maintaining advanced capabilities in clean energy systems; multiphase flow science, combustion science, innovative energy concepts, reaction engineering and diagnostics and controls. Additional Laboratory assets include one of the world’s fasted supercomputers and complex modeling devices, sophisticated sensors and multiphase flow science tools.

NETL research sites in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Morgantown, West Virginia; and Albany, Oregon develop advanced energy technologies and accelerate their commercialization in the United States and around the world. NETL also maintains productive partnerships with researchers in industry, academia, and other national laboratories and government organizations to enhance and further develop the Laboratory’s energy research and analysis portfolios.

KEEA is a non-profit corporation dedicated to promoting the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries in Pennsylvania. KEEA advocates on behalf of clean energy on the local, state and federal levels and was founded in 2006 in response to the state’s lack of energy efficiency policies. More than 50 Pennsylvania businesses, nonprofit groups and government entities are members of KEEA.